The disclosure is directed to slide-out rooms, operating mechanisms for slide out rooms, and components thereof. Such apparatus may be used in recreational vehicles and the like to selectively expand the interior space thereof. More specifically, a slide-out room installed in a vehicle may be extended to effectively increase the interior volume of the vehicle, and retracted to reduce the exterior footprint of the vehicle.
Known slide-out rooms often take the form of a box having five walls, namely, a floor, a ceiling, an outer wall and two opposing side walls. The sixth side of the “box” is substantially or sufficiently open to allow access to the interior of the slide-out room from the interior of the vehicle. The outer wall of the slide-out room may overlap the outer wall of the vehicle in which it is installed when the slide-out room is retracted. Seals for sealing the interface between the two walls generally need to conform to the contours of each of the walls. In applications where the wall contours are other than flat and parallel to each other, the seals may need to be complex. Complex seals can be costly and difficult to install.
Known mechanisms for operating such slide-out rooms include geared racks on the exterior surfaces of the floor or side walls of the room and motor-driven pinions mounted to the vehicle engaged with the geared racks. The pinions can be operated to drive the racks and the room to which they are attached in and out of the vehicle. At least some portions of such mechanisms may be exposed to the environment when the slide-out room is extended and may attract or otherwise engage with dirt, debris, or foreign objects that could hinder proper operation of the mechanisms.
Other known mechanisms for operating such slide-out rooms include hydraulic actuators engaged between the floor of the room and the frame of the vehicle. Such mechanisms may have difficulty in positioning the room in a manner that provides an effective seal between the outer wall of the room and the outer wall of the vehicle when the room is retracted.